Texas State University professor James McWilliams (Just Food) was motivated to write The Modern Savage: Our Unthinking Decision to Eat Animals because "this fundamental... claim that animals, like us, are living creatures that have an immense capacity to suffer... has been left off the table while the animals we claim to care so much about remain very much on it." In McWilliams's view, if animals have intrinsic worth that warrants moral consideration and decent standards of living, then our decision to kill and eat those same animals is wrong. Recent outrage at the cruelty of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) has provided a more humane existence for the animals we consume, but McWilliams believes we must also critically examine how the bucolic imagery of free-range farming lulls consumers into believing animals are no longer mere commodities: "To end a sentient animal's life is to suddenly objectify the animal after previously treating him as a subject worthy of moral consideration."
Modern Savage examines why backyard slaughter is often inhumane, how free-range chickens are not happier, safer or healthier (for the consumer and the chicken), why Joel Salatin's theory of rotational grazing can never become a realistic answer to global warming and why Americans' love of bacon is no excuse for the mutilation and abuse pigs must endure on CAFOs and small farms alike. McWilliams argues that although the cycle of compassion began with human consumers seeking morally responsible choices for animal welfare, ultimately the only way to improve the lives of farm animals and challenge our dysfunctional food system is to stop eating hunted and domesticated animals altogether. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics